Do Not Cease 2 Pray
For this reason we also, since the day we heard it, do not cease to pray for you, and to ask that you may be filled with the knowledge of His will in all wisdom and spiritual understanding; that you may walk worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing Him, being fruitful in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God; strengthened with all might, according to His glorious power, for all patience and longsuffering with joy; giving thanks to the Father who has qualified us to be partakers of the inheritance of the saints in the light. He has delivered us from the power of darkness and conveyed us into the kingdom of the Son of His love, in whom we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:9-14
Good day, friends!
I hope that God has continued to work in you, sanctifying you to Himself. He has been working on me quite a bit this week. I only hope and pray that all of it is being taken to heart and that I am learning my lessons. Ugh. It's a bit hard if you know what I mean, so I would covet your prayers as I remember to pray for each of you.
Notice in the scripture above, Paul states that he does not cease to pray for the Christians in Colosse. We should have a time set aside for prayer each day to communicate with God. I do it before I read my Bible in the morning and also at night. I pray for people and needs in the morning when I do it for a more extended amount of time and I do a brief prayer and confession in the evening before bed. I'm not telling you this out of pride or to make you think better of me or copy me etc... In fact, recently I went back to doing it this way. I have organized my Bible study and prayer time in many different ways over the years. It's up to you and God (it wouldn't hurt to get suggestions from your parents either) to decide what works best for you to have undistracted time to be with God and draw near to Him.
Now, let's look at what the apostle begs of God for the Colossians.
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That they might be knowing intelligent Christians
...filled with the knowledge of his will, in all wisdom and spiritual understanding.
1. The knowledge of our duty is the best knowledge.
Our knowledge of the will of God must be always practical: we must know it, in order to do it.
2. Our knowledge is a blessing when it is with wisdom, when we know how to apply general knowledge to particular occasions and emergencies.
3. Christians should endeavor to be filled with knowledge; not only to know the will of God, but to know more of it, and toincrease in the knowledge of God, and to grow in grace, and in the knowledge of our Lord and Saviour. 2 Peter 3:18
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That their conversation might be good.
Good knowledge without a good life will not profit. Our understanding is then a spiritual understanding when we show it in our way of living. Good words will not do without good works. We must abound in every good work. Not in the easy, suitable and safe ones, but in every instance of them. The more fruitful we are in good works the more we shall increase in the knowledge of God. That you may walk worthy of the Lord unto all pleasing Col 1:10
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That they might be strengthened.
To be strengthened is to be furnished by the grace of God for every good work, and fortified by that grace against every evil one: it is to be enabled to do our duty, and still to hold fast our integrity. The blessed Spirit is the author of this strength.
He prayed that they might be strengthened with might. By this, he means that they might be mightily strengthened or strengthened with might derived from another.
All that might which we have occasion for is to enable us to discharge our duty or preserve our innocence. That grace is sufficient for us in all the trials of life and able to help us in time of need.
When God gives he gives like himself, and when he strengthens he strengthens like himself.
1.The special use of this strength was for suffering work.
That you may be strengthened unto all patience and long-suffering with joyfulness. He prays not only that they may besupported in their troubles, but that they would be strengthened for them. There is work to be done even when we are suffering. That is one purpose of God's strength.
